I changed my mind!

That's right. I did. I changed my mind. I have been thinking long and hard about which direction to move in as far as a second venue goes. There are so many wonderful opportunities on the internet for handmade sellers. I thought that Lolli Shops might be the one but after thinking about it, I don't really fit into that genre. I don't make frou frou jewelry. I like to create earthy pieces, using lots of green and brown colors, using natural elements such as ceramics, polymer clays, metals, and glass. I just feel like if I was part of Lolli shops I'd be trying to create jewelry to fit into that genre and that doesn't seem like "me". Does that make sense?

So I decided I better back out before the site goes live, and before I put a lot of time, effort, and money into it. I feel good about my decision. I think it was the wrong direction. I know I want to try to sell my jewelry online in a different kind of setting. Etsy is all well and good. I have my complaints as do many other people. I am not bashing Etsy. I will stick with them. But I thought it might be nice to transfer some of my eggs to another basket for a bit. See what happens.
And so I found, 1000 Markets.
As soon as I stumbled across this website, I was in love. I like the simplicity of it. The look of the front page, it's attractive. It pulls you in. It's not fussy. There aren't a lot of links. You can search by Craft or you can search by Market. I won't bore you with all the details of the site. You can do your research for yourself. But I like it, and I'm going to try it out. I'm setting up my shop now. It will be called The Owls Den.
It has to be approved once everything is in place and meet all of their criteria. I'll let you know when I'm up and running. 1,000 Markets uses Amazon Payments - no paypal. I think this makes it quite easy for the shopper to use a credit card securely. But hey if you love paypal, then stick with Etsy. I'll still be on Etsy. I'm not leavin'!

On to the good stuff.

I'm in the studio last night. I pick up this ceramic Chinook Jewelry leaf, and start imagining myself lost in the woods. Dark woods, a path, crunchy leaves under foot. Moss. Lots of green. Brown. The smell. There is a smell in the woods. There is a low lying fog settling in.


image from Del Higgins

All of a sudden, I've created this necklace. Sometimes I wonder how I come up with this stuff.

I absolutely adore this necklace. And it was created out of a vision of the woods-I don't know where it came from. I suppose if you sit in the studio long enough, you'll always come up with something! Created with a handmade ceramic pendant from Chinook Jewelry, a WISH bead from Diane Hawkey, various green Czech glass beads, Ceramic rounds from Elaine Ray. The clasp is a Vintaj Brass Co. Leaf toggle located at the front side of the necklace giving it a nice asymmetrical feeling.
I continued on with the woodsy, earthy theme and created this bracelet using a funky ceramic toggle from Mary Harding. I've been holding onto this toggle for a while now and decided it was time to let it go. I pulled in the green with lucite rounds, and red with some buri nuts, and added some awesome spikey top drilled seeds.


These two pieces will be the first additions to my new shop (if my shop gets accepted!) on 1,000 Markets. I hope that you like them, and that you'll support me in my new venture.

To thank you, my blog readers again, I'd like to offer you a 25% discount today on everything in my etsy shop.
I'd also love to clean out some of the older stock, and get some new stuff in there. So just mention BLOG POST in the notes to seller and I'll send you an updated invoice. :) xo